Titans Send Lone Wrestler To State

February 14, 2013

MILFORD - The Titans of Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire brought three wrestlers to Saturday's Class 1A District tournament in Milford, but only one Titan would earn advancement to the State Wrestling Tournament this week in Des Moines.

Cody Thompson, the Titans' 285 pounder, captured the championship in his weight division to earn the trip to his first State Tournament. Thompson started his trip to state with a 1:10 win by fall over Nolan Geerdes of Central Lyon/George Little Rock, setting up his championship match with Alex Bruch of Carroll Kuemper.

In the final, Thompson and Bruch would battle to a 1-1 tie at the end of the regulation three periods. Moving into the sudden death period, Thompson made a shot that caught the Kuemper wrestler and allowed Thompson to score the takedown to earn the championship with a 3-1 decision.

The Titans also brought Alex Hoffman and Austin Thompson to the District meet, but both would be denied in their bids to make it to the big dance.

At 113 pounds, Alex Hoffman received a bye in his first round match after his initial opponent, Kyle Vierck of West Lyon, forfeited due to illness. Automatically advancing into the finals match, Hoffman went up against Mitch Brinkman of Pocahontas Area in a repeat of the Sectional title match.

However, for Hoffman, Brinkman would earn the championship with a 4-1 decision over the Titan wrestler.

Hoffman would then have to wrestleback for the true second place finish, meeting Jose Montes of West Sioux in the crucial wrestleback, but Hoffman was unable to score and came up short in the 2-0 decision to finish third.

At 126 pounds, Austin Thompson would start his day on a down note as he was pinned in 3:25 by Colby McIntire of Central Lyon/George-Little Rock.

Moving into the consolation bracket, Thompson earned a 7-2 decision victory over Kaleb Vanderpool of Okoboji to place third.

But, Thompson would not get an opportunity for a wrestleback and settled for third place to cap off the Titans' efforts.